How to turn Off DNS cache on Windows

Written by Davinder Singh Kainth

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DNS cache store name resolution information of websites you visit. If flushing DNS cache does not fix corrupt or bad DNS issue, you can disable DNS cache client service to turn off DNS caching on Windows system. This can be easily done by executing commands in the command prompt window or manually changing settings.

Temporarily disable DNS caching

1. Goto Start > Run and type cmdin run box (or in default search bar in Vista & Windows 7). Make sure you are logged in as administration. Right click cmd and then click ‘run as administrator’ option.

2. Then use following command in the command prompt window to disable client-side DNS caching on Windows sytem.

net stop dnscache

Above command will disable DNS cache for current session. DNS cache will be set to enabled on next system reboot or restart.

Permanently disable DNS caching

1. Goto Start > Run (use default search box on Windows 7, Vista).

2. Type Services.msc in Run or search box.

3. Check for DNS client service in the listing.

4. Double click on DNS client service and then stop button.

You can enable it back by clicking start button after double clicking on DNS client service listing.

Comments

The DNS client “was” important to preventing DNS poisoning attacks that can sometimes happen in just a few second bursts. I have seen lately where the DNS client itself was being used by comcast to poison just my machines DNS registry and spoof FB to capture passwords. This began to happen on boot-up after I would use the “ipconfg /flushdns”. I have suspected for the last 5 years Akaima patch poisoning and have traced the most likely culprit being DNS MIM insertion. This is very hard to nail down and now almost impossible with the round-robin DNS server configs that not only increased the DNS response time but make tracing actors impossible for everyone but the insiders. ROR [Rotz of Ruck]